News in brief
Hunt puts ‘technology revolution’ in his top four priorities: Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has identified a “technology revolution” as one of his top four priorities for the NHS for the first time, reported HSJ (subscription required). Since taking over as secretary of state in September Mr Hunt has frequently cited his “four key priorities”. In a blog on the ConservativeHome website, he lists them as: “Improve the standard of care throughout the system; bring the technology revolution to the NHS; radically improve treatment and care of dementia; [and] improve mortality rates for the big killer diseases to be the best in Europe.” It is the first time those priorities have explicitly mentioned technology, now he says a “technology revolution” is needed to improve services for the people with long-term conditions.
NHS Trust issues tender of up to £100m for IT hardware: The University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust is looking for a supplier or suppliers for new IT hardware in an agreement worth between £50m and £100m, reported Computing. The four-year contract, which is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement, is divided into six lots; tenders can be submitted for all lots. The tender states that other public-sector bodies may make use of the framework, such as central government departments, NHS bodies, police forces, local authorities, educational establishments, registered charities and the Ministry of Defence.
One in three patients do not need face-to-face appointments, says minister: According to health minister Dr Dan Poulter one in three patients do not need a face-to-face appointment with their GP, reported Pulse. Speaking at a Westminster debate last week, Dr Poulter called on the NHS to ‘better utilise’ modern technology which could see patients being seen by doctors over a computer screen, rather than ‘face-to-face’. ‘There are many examples of simple things that can be done, such as having a doctor or nurse talk to a patient on the phone when they call to book an appointment or as an initial assessment. About one third of patients do not necessarily need a face-to-face GP appointment,’ he said. Dr Poulter claimed that a technological revolution would save the NHS £2.9bn ‘almost immediately’.
Hunt orders review into OFSTED style ratings for NHS and social care: Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered a review to assess the merits of an ‘OFSTED style’ system of ratings for hospitals and care homes, in an announcement by the Department of Health. The review will look at the way in which a new ratings system could help end the ‘crisis in standards of care’ that exists in parts of the health and social care system. It will look in particular at how information about services can be communicated to the public and how this information can be used to drive up standards across the system. He made clear that dignity, respect, and a constant, relentless drive for improvement in standards of care must be paramount. Greater transparency about how institutions perform is essential to that – starting with the ‘friends and family test’, which will be rolled out across the NHS.
Technology sidelined in QIPP plans: Health Service Journal (HSJ) (subscription required) analysis has revealed that only one in six local NHS innovation and efficiency schemes explicitly mentions adopting or extending the use of new technologies. The finding comes in the week health secretary Jeremy Hunt altered his four “key priorities” to highlight the need to facilitate a “technology revolution” in the service. HSJ understands the health secretary believes much wider use of technology is essential if the NHS is to meet its £20bn quality, innovation, productivity and prevention challenge. However, the latest regional tracking of primary care trust clusters’ savings programmes, released to HSJ under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that just 51 out of 317 local QIPP workstreams have one or more technology milestones.
Secret Scottish NHS incident reports released: Hundreds of previously secret NHS reports into serious incidents, including 105 deaths, have been published by BBC Scotland. The reports include a person being blown up while on oxygen therapy after lighting a cigarette. The reports were released after a Freedom of Information request. Former NHS staff have accused health boards of covering up mistakes rather than learning from them. In another Scottish report this week, it has been revealed that Scotland’s ageing population is to cost an extra £1.1bn a year, reported the Scotsman. Scotland’s population aged 65 and over is estimated to increase by 21 per cent between 2006 and 2016, and by 62 per cent by 2031. The rise will be 38 per cent and 144 per cent respectively in the population aged 85 and over. The country already spends £4.5 billion on health and social care.
NHS Trust to put its data in the cloud: Mersey Care NHS Trust is planning to move its operational data and ICT infrastructure to a cloud platform as part of a contract that is expected to generate £1.5m in savings, reported Government Computing. The project will see the trust transfer 15 terabytes of data, currently stored in-house on 90 servers, to an external data center. The £3m deal, which will establish the UK’s first healthcare cloud, is set to run for five years. Although Informatics Merseyside, a central buying agency for nine local NHS bodies, signed the framework agreement with SCC in May, Mersey Care is the first customer to sign a contract. The transfer process will start in February and is expected to be complete by August 2013.
Cambridgeshire to go-live with RiO: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust will go live with its electronic patient record system RiO this weekend. The mental health trust, which provides services to 750,000 people, signed the contract for CSE Healthcare System’s EPR in July this year. RiO is replacing the trust’s three separate patient administration systems. Jane Berezynskyj, programme manager for the trust, told eHealth Insider everything had gone to plan so far and the trust was ready for the go-live. The £1.8m contract between the two organisations will run for six years, with the possibility of a two-year extension.
Cracks ‘beginning to appear’ in NHS: A mid-term report for the coalition government authored by The King’s Fund has warned that “cracks are beginning to appear” in the health service in England, reported Healthcare Today. The think tank’s review brought up worries about A&E waiting times and financial issues. The think tank warned the pressure on the NHS to save 5% every year was already causing problems. The report showed A&E waiting times had increased since 2009, even though they had stayed within the target of 95% of people treated within four hours. The King’s Fund policy director Anna Dixon said: “There are huge risks, particularly in ensuring that quality of care does not suffer with the further financial squeeze.”
50,000 ‘denied treatment’ to save NHS cash, claims Labour: Speaking in the commons Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said he had new evidence that English NHS trusts had restricted access to 125 treatments over the last two years, reported The Telegraph. He claimed access to interventions like varicose vein operations, cataract removals, carpel tunnel syndrome surgery and tonsillectomies was commonly being restricted to improve NHS waiting time statistics. Labour said the situation amounted to “Cameron’s health lottery” and has called for an immediate reversal of rationing decisions that leave patients in severe pain or with restricted mobility.
Rotherham faces ‘technical difficulties’: The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust’s non-executive directors have raised concerns about “technical difficulties” with its Meditech electronic patient record implementation, reported eHealth Insider. The trust deployed Meditech in June this year. Phase one included real time bed management, order communications and results, outpatient letters to GPs and discharge summaries. Papers from the trust’s board meeting in September said the non-executive directors were worried that “technical problems” were “affecting services and the ongoing support to be provided by Meditech.” A spokesperson from the trust said that although many areas of the implementation went well, the trust had experienced some operational issues.
Raise tax to protect NHS, say half population: According to a poll by Ipsos MORI, one in two people think taxes should rise to protect NHS services, reported The Telegraph. The polling firm found 48 per cent of people said they wanted to “increase taxes in order to maintain the level of spending needed to keep the current level of care and services provided by the NHS”. The survey carried out for the Nuffield Trust, a leading think-tank is predicting that major cuts to NHS services will be needed over the next decade. David Cameron says the Government has protected the NHS budget, and it is being increased in line with general inflation.
Opinion
I’ll have one of those please doctor!
An article from Dr Phil Hammond a GP, writer, comic, lecturer and broadcaster, etc, etc, is actually worth a read! He asks the question ‘What’s more likely to deliver a consumer-led NHS? The Health and Social Care Act or his new iPad?’
Not surprisingly he finally succumbed to the Apple revolution, apparently because of his 82 year old stepfather who bought one and loves it. He references how much fun it is and easy to use, as well as the Apps that give you GP ratings.
“Three weeks into my new iPad, and I’m convinced technology has a much wider role to play in a more open, transparent, responsive NHS. My only questions: Who’s going to pay for it? And who’s going to check and communicate the accuracy and fairness of the information?”
GP super-partnerships: a route to integrated care?
Many GPs are wondering how to survive a future consisting of rising demand, revalidation, falling practice income, clinical commissioning group (CCG) scrutiny and more. Smaller practices in particular, with few staff, minimal infrastructure and tight budgets are struggling with the greater organisational, administrative and clinical demands.
With a future filled with challenges, Dr Rebecca Rosen, senior fellow in health policy at the Nuffield Trust, a GP and CCG vice-chair in Greenwich, reflects on insights from a recent Nuffield Trust seminar. It cited GP practices in other international territories such as New Zealand, the USA and Holland who have grouped together to retain more control over working arrangements and exert greater influence on their patients’ wider use of health care services.
The event also shone a light on the Vitality Partnership whereby seven practices in the UK now operate under an overarching partnership agreement with a total list size of 51,000, approximately £10m turnover and over 150 staff.
“In addition to general and primary medical services (GMS and PMS) Vitality currently offers nine specialist services through a combination of GPs with special interests and outreach consultants. More are planned, along with wider primary care (dentistry, pharmacy and community nursing).With a potential referral base of 80,000 the business case for investing in equipment and services looks strong – albeit within a policy context that promotes choice and competition.
“As a pragmatic alternative to merging NHS contracts the partnership holds multiple GMS and PMS contracts but there is also one overarching partnership agreement in place. This defines standards in relation to quality, access and other areas of practice, that incoming partners sign up to when joining.
“Some of the key themes identified in previous reports into organised general practice here and abroad resonate with the emerging story of Vitality: strong organisational values focused on peer-review and improvement; a desire to remain in control of the services they deliver and to withstand the influence of changing national policy and clinicians who want to leading change and innovation.”
Will the friends and family test transform the NHS?
Earlier this week, Dr Neil Bacon, founder and chief executive of iWantGreatCare, was asked by the Guardian whether a new innovative NHS quality and performance monitoring system, which lets patients ‘choose what to say and when they say it’, will provide a platform to improving quality of care.
“The friends and family test is not just another NHS data collection exercise. For the first time, the fundamental purpose of the information collected is to share it with the public in a totally open, transparent way.
“When the prime minister announced the test, the focus was on giving patients information to help them choose, not providing yet more internal statistics for organisational improvement.
“Paradoxically however it will become one of the most effective improvement tools the NHS has ever seen, one which puts continuous pressure on all organisations, which highlights excellence while shining the light of transparency onto sub-standard performance.
“This power lies in core features of the test which, although commonplace outside healthcare, are unique for NHS quality and performance monitoring. The link between transparent user feedback and improved service quality is now well recognised, often solving the most intractable quality challenges. For instance, efforts over many years to reduce food infection in New York restaurants had no impact, until restaurant rating assessments were displayed on the window of every restaurant in full view of staff and diners.
“So how will the test deliver these same benefits to the NHS?”
Highland Marketing Blog
This week Mark Venables asks: Is the mainstream media hampering adoption of healthcare technology?
